Jackson says Eagles adjustments on defense took a half to solve

The Bucs were shut out in the first half of Sunday's 23-21 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles as the offense struggled from the outset.

Tampa Bay went only 1-for-8 on third down and quarterback Josh Freeman completed only 5-of-16 passes for 61 yards by halftime. But receiver Vincent Jackson credited the Eagles for defensive adjustments they had not shown on film.

"That’s how this game goes each and every week,'' Jackson said. "You prepare for a team, you watch a lot of film and you think you have an idea what they’re going to do and a team like that, they played us a little different than we expected. They were doing a lot more roll coverage, safeties over top and they hadn’t shown a lot of that in that format. There are just keys and things that they haven’t shown before. Sometimes, it takes a drive or two to get it going, to break it down and we did that.

"The second half, we went in there at halftime, made some corrections, made adjustments and said, “Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’ Obviously, you wanted to be a little more aggressive, started getting the ball our of Josh’s hands a little faster. When we do that and get him into a good rhythm, he feels good and the pocket is feeling good, we’re a pretty tough team. Sometimes it starts out early in the first half and sometimes it doesn’t happen until the second half. But the fact that we’re able to find it each and every week is a positive thing.''

Jackson did his part, finishing with six catches for 131 yards and a touchdown, most of it coming in the second half.

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